US374948A - Thomas t - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

T. T. ECKERT. CLIP OR HANGER CLASP FOR SUPPORTING GABLES, &c.

No. 374,948. Patented Dec. 20, 1887.

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. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS T. EGKERT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLIP OR HANGER-CLASP FOR SUPPORTING CABLES, C.

SPECIFICATION formin part of Letters Patent No. 374.94 dated December 20, l

Application filed May 31, 1887. Serial No. 239,903.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Tnorrns T. EOKERT, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, a citizen of the United States of America, have made a new and useful Improvement in Clips or Hanger- Clasps for Suspending Electrical Gables from Auxiliary Supporting Wires or Lines, of which the following is a specification.

Overhead cables such as are usually employed possess little tensile strength and are inadequate to support their own weight when placed upon poles long distances apart. To avoid the use of many poles and at the same time properly support the cable,itis suspended from an auxiliary supporting-wire by means of clips or hangers at points only a few feet apart; and my invention has for its object the construction of such a clip or hanger which may be applied and removed in hanging cables with little labor, and which may be very. cheaply made.

I will now describe my invention by reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure l is a perspective view showing my hanger-clip before, after, and during its application to suspend a cable from a supportingwire. Fig. 2 shows a cross-section of Fig. 1, through the hanger-clip N, the clip as here shown being simply slipped over the supporting-wire and cable. Fig. 3 represents a front view of my hanger-clip shown in Fig. 2.

In making my improved hanger clips I preferably employ a piece of sheet or strap iron of about one inch in width and one-sixteenth or one twenty-fourth of an inch in thickness, and this strip, with the exception of its ends. is bent to an oval form, 0, whose radius of curvature is considerably greater than that of the cable to be supported. The ends primarily retain their former plane-like shape, one forming a lip of about or a little more than twice the length of the other. The longer lip is next bent near its middle to form a hook whose sides make an angle of ninety degrees, (90,) more or less, and those sides are designated in the drawings as a b, the latter constituting the shank and the former the lip of the hook. The lip at the opposite end of the clip is designated as d. By bending the sections at b to about a right angle and curving (No model.)

section 0, as above indicated, an aperture between the free ends of lips or and d will be left of sufficient width to permit the clip to be laterally slipped over the cable T and the supporting-wire S, while the angle between the sides a b, as shown in Fig. 2, affords a temporary support for the clip upon wire S. As thus constructed, only very little remains to be done to apply the clip to perform its function as a cable-support. Tongs or pliers are first applied near the extremities of the curved section 0, closely compressing it around the cable. The lip d is then bent into a position parallel with and close to the shank b, and subsequently lip a is bent down and over the free end of lip d.

It is essential to a proper construction of my clip that the sides a b be made as short as possible, as will more fully hereinafter appear.

" The particular purpose of this arrangement of lips a (l and shank b of the clasp is as follows: The weight of the cable tends to bend section 0 of the clip and to cause lip 01 to become separated from shank b. This force, however, is resisted by the free end of lip (I being firmly held against lateral displacement by the downwardly-projecting lip a, and obviously the resistance offered by lip a to such spreading action depends largely upon the position of contact between the outer surface of lip d and the inner surface of lip a. If the free end of lip d were in contact with lip a only a little above its lower end, little resistance to spreading action would be afforded, owing to the short leverage of lip a. If, however, lip a were considerablyelongated, only little force, if applied atits lower end, would be required to distend the shank and lip of the hook. The resistance to spreading, however, is'rendered great from the fact that the upper end of d presses against the inner side of lip a at a point near the angle of the hook, thus leaving only little leverage between the position of contact and the angle.

The strength of the locking portion of the clip, as already stated, depends largely upon the shortness of the lips a d and shank b, for resistance to spreading action will be almost inversely proportional to the length of these parts. By making lip d short it can be only slightly bent between its free end and its junction with the curved section 0,- also, by making lip a short there will be no portion of it far removed from the angle or hook against which lip d can press; and, again, as shank b is very short, great force would be required to laterally displace it in respect to the curved section 0.

By this construction a clip may be made possessing great strength of ordinary strapiron and of such lightness and flexibility that it can be readily applied with the aid of simple pliers or tongs. v

I am aware that others have made hangerclips resembling in a general manner the one hereinbefore described 5 but in such cases where a single piece of strap-iron has been employed auxiliary devices have been resorted to to prevent the ends of the clip from spreading. For example, in the patent of A. S. Veaver, No. 308,220, November 18, 1884. a lateral bolt is used to hold the three parallel portions (the two lips and the shank) of the clip together. Without this bolt the upwardly-projecting and free end of the clip would be displaced and the cable would not be retained within the clip. Others have also shown this class of clip with other devices than a bolt for holding its free end from displacement. George L. WViley, in Letters Patent obtained by him 'January 4, 1887, shows a hook upon the free end of the clip interlocked with a corresponding hook upon the lip of the hook passing over the supporting-wire. I

My invention is intended to obviate the use of all auxiliary devices for preventing the free end of the clip from spreading, and this is accomplished byinclosing the free end ofthe clip within the hook at its opposite end, and within the same hook by which the clip is suspended from the supporting-wire.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As an article of manufacture, a hangerclip which, preparatory to its application to suspend cables, is formed of strap-iron or other suitable material,having an oval section whose radius of curvature exceeds that of the cable, a lip, d, at one end, and a lip, a, and shank 11, forming an angle or hook,at the other, as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination of a cable, T, an auxiliary supporting-wire, S, and a supporting-clip formed of lips a d, shank b, and a curved section, 0, the lip d being pressed parallel with and close to shank I), and the downwardly-projecting lip a being pressed downward over the upper end of lip d.

3. A clip for suspending a cable from an auxiliary supporting-wire, one of whose ends is bent over the supporting-wire downwardly and closely against and over the upwardlyprojecting lip, forming the opposite end of the clip.

4. 'A clip for suspending a cable from an auxiliary supporting-wire, having a short lip at one end and a hook at the other, said hook serving as a support for the clip, and also as a means for inclosing the opposite end of the clip, to prevent its lateral displacement by the weight of the cable.

THOS. T. EOKERT.

Witnesses:-

G. L. BUOKINGHAM, A. S. BROWN.

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